I’ve always found EPs to be fun. They’re like little bonus albums that you don’t see coming, and they’re a few bucks cheaper, so as a teenager I would always pick them up without hearing a note. I figure that there are a few reasons that artists release EPs:

1) They ended up with a few tracks left over from their last album

2) They have a bunch of songs that don’t quite fit into the feel of their albums (think Alice In Chains’s highly acoustic EP “Sap")

3) They don’t want to be forgotten in those long periods between albums

4) A money grab - Basically a single with a bunch of covers and live tracks/remixes

Sharon Van Etten’s new EP is probably of the type described in #1 above. Her last album, “Are We There”, was stellar from start to finish, and I could see a number of tracks being left off of it to keep it to 11 tracks. (I always appreciate that. Less is more people!) Also, the 4 studio tracks all have a similar production value to the last album, so they could have been picked right up off of the cutting room floor and put out as is. They’re all strong songs, with “I Always Fall Apart” being the standout.

If you’re a SVE fan, this is a no brainer, just go pick it up now. If these are brand new recordings I am a little concerned that they sound like they were plucked right from the last album, so hopefully she has a bit of a left turn coming up for the next one.